This is not to say that I didn’t enjoy a lot of what I watched (and actually, I watched very few new series this year), it’s just that I have a hard time imagining wanting to watch much of it again. Sola is a good example: a lovely little series, and Matsuri was a tremendously charming character. But watch the series again? Probably not. I’d be more inclined to scratch that itch by watching Hantsuki again — Rika is just as lonely and sweet a character as Matsuri, in many ways, and for me, the two series settle in the same niche.

I might add a fifth title to my list after I rent German Lager or whatever that drill show was called that ADV licensed.

I don’t really know if one can compare year by year with any real meaning because what we’re all doing is just comparing show by show. If year X has more shows you like than year X+1 then year X is better, it’s pretty simple. But obviously I don’t really care about shows I like so much, rather it’s about shows that are worth watching. So far in this “Year in Review” thing I’ve only talked about 1 show this year that I liked, and that is 5cm. And maybe Touka Gettan 21 (but that’s just 1 ep).

But there is space for someone to do a “year in review” that talks about the year in terms of what has happened. For example this year is a lousy year for Japanese otaku in two areas: government censorship and corporate self-censorship. Someone could also talk about this year’s trends, like the rise of the yandere. There’s a lot to talk about.

I think we can link this all back to Kazuo Koike. Koike has said in the past that he writes characters, not stories. This is why his stories tend to make no sense at all. Koike has trained some of best and brightest in manga, so clearly his influence has bled into every section of the industry.

Or it could just be an inherent aspect of Japanese storytelling, I dunno.

I don’t know how you and Jeff are doing this, since I found this year to be mostly poo. But what do I know? I’ve only been watching anime as it airs for 2 years now so I have no perspective at all. That and maybe I just watched all of the wrong shows.

Out of the other bloggers that seem to be doing this end of the year business. Omo, your’s seem to be about the more lesser known shows of the year overall. Yay for underrated anime!